The Long Home Coming
by Star Gazer6
Summary: Akina has run away and it's up to teh rest of the house hold to help find her. Something has gotten into Quatre though and they will have to hurry if they want him to ever be happy again. Part three in the Star Gazing Series.


The Long Home Coming  
  
He started at the ceiling as the CD started to play again. It was full of songs that reminded him of her. A soft knock came at the door and a deep voice from the other side talked to him calmly.  
  
"Quatre are you gonna stay in there for the rest of your life?"  
  
The boy on the bed didn't answer that was all he would ever say to his friends, which would try to get him to talk. His friend stepped into the room.  
  
"Quatre you've been like this for 6 mos. why don't you at least talk?"  
  
His friends had seen him like this ever since she left and they haven't been able to break him from this trance state that he was in. The blonde was still starting at the ceiling and ignored his friends that were trying to help.  
  
"Quatre at least listen to me. She said that she would be back now didn't she? I know how tough it was to let her go and she probably feels the same way but she just had to do it and there was no way in stopping her."  
  
When his friend didn't show any reaction he sighed deeply and left the room. It had been like that for what seemed like forever and would still be.  
  
"Uncle Quatre?"  
  
A second voice, softer than the first, came from the other side of the door. It was his niece Nicole; she stayed with then for just the same time he had been like this.  
  
"Uncles Quatre, why are you doing this to yourself?"  
  
She sat down next to him.  
  
"Please answer me, and come down stairs for a while."  
  
But he just stood up and went to the window. He would stand there for hours sometimes hoping that he see some thing or find something out there. Sometimes he would wish that a black hole would just swallow him up and keep him there forever.  
  
"Don't do this to yourself anymore. I worry about you."  
  
He didn't answer; he just kept starting at the window. He no longer wanted to smile or laugh without her. She gave a sigh and walked out of the room. Soon there would be another knock.  
  
"Quatre."  
  
The door opened with a creak and the tall Trowa walked into the room with a tray of lunch for his heart broken friend. He set the tray down on the table and walked over to his saddened friend.  
  
"Quatre, you must stop this or something will go wrong and something will be lost."  
  
The blonde turned to his friend and started at him. His eyes were lost and never ending, they had lost its gleam, all of its childish heart was lost inside of him. And for some reason Trowa understood why and left the room not saying another word.  
  
"Quatre."  
  
The next knock didn't come till an hour later but started out the same way as the others did. His dark eyed friend Wufei stepped into the room; now Wufei wasn't the best at trying to break Quatre because of his little patience.  
  
"Quatre I will only stay a while because I know you won't talk to me."  
  
He was right Quatre wouldn't talk to him, the most reactions that anyone got from him was Trowa; he had always seemed to have a bond with him. Maybe it was from every time he left him and Akina alone but no one else knew about it.  
  
"Quatre everyone has tried so hard to get you to be happy again, but I guess the only thing that would make you happy is having her back. I know if I had lost Nicole like the way you did with Akina I would probably be like this too, but you must have hope in her she will return to you, just wait and see."  
  
At that he left the room looking for no answer knowing that there wouldn't be one.  
  
A fifth and final knock came to the door, but this time no one spoke to him a young boy just stepped in quietly.  
  
"Quatre."  
  
His voice was soft yet stern.  
  
"Quatre don't do this, it's not you. You, and all of us know she'll be back. I know you've heard that a hundred times but it's true."  
  
He only stayed a while before leaving with the empty try on the table; well at least he's eating.  
  
1 Chapter 2  
  
"No luck either?" Nicole said from were she sat in the study.  
  
"Nope, he's still hung on her."  
  
"There has to be some way in making him happy again." Trowa said as he put his elbows on his knees and leaned on them with his head in his hands.  
  
"The only way to make him happy again would be to get her back."  
  
"Hmmm. She didn't want him looking for her right? Why can't we?" With a snap of his fingers everyone looked up and they knew that Trowa had a plan.  
  
"We'll try and find her. I can't believe that I didn't think of this sooner."  
  
"But we can't all go. Someone has to look over the house and Quatre." Nicole said as she walked over to hear his plan.  
  
"Fine then you and Duo go."  
  
"What? What do you mean I go?" Duo said looking like he had just been asked to go on a susside mission.  
  
"Oh it won't take long. And anyways you were her best friend when she was younger so next to Quatre you know more about her than anyone else."  
  
"But why Nicole?"  
  
"Because she can help you and plus she can get to learn to use the gundams."  
  
"Me pilot the Gundams?"  
  
"Well not all of them of course. You can take Sandrock though it will be hard to learn the controls with out Quatre but you'll catch on."  
  
Trowa said this as though it was normal but Nicole had never seen a gundam up close before only when they showed them shortly on T.V. She wasn't afraid of the fact that she never seen one, it was just that she was nervous of flying, she always had been.  
  
"Fine. I'll do it. When do we leave?"  
  
"Tomorrow the sooner the better."  
  
"I'll go see what I can do about the Gundam." She ran out of the room leaving the rest to plan the route.  
  
Chapter 3  
  
She walked into the hanger thinking that she would have it all yo herself but when she walked in she found Wufei sitting there.  
  
"Oh hello. I didn't think you were in here." He gave her a smile and walked over to her.  
  
"Don't worry you'll do fine."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I mean with your trip."  
  
"How'd you find out?"  
  
"I have my ways. Anyways you need to figure out the controls. When do you leave?"  
  
"Tomorrow."  
  
"Why don't you take Nataku instead of Sandrock? I can teach you the controls much faster." He pointed to the green gundam that was standing in between a black one and an orange one. She just stood there for a moment and thought to her self.  
  
"What kind of weapons do they have? I know I won't have to fight but I do want to know my choices before I go, and I do have to fight."  
  
He explained the weapons on each of the gundams and she had chosen Nataku.  
  
"Right now all I need to learn is how to fly I can always learn how to fight on my own."  
  
"So you leave tomorrow? I guess that would be enough time."  
  
"Thanks Wufei you're the best." She had most of the controls down because they were all set to a program. "I should be ok but I still should write this down just in case." Wufei was proud of how fast she learned, it was just like having Akina back but this time she was all his.  
  
Chapter 4  
  
Duo and Nicole had spent most of their morning just getting ready.  
  
"You ready?"  
  
"Ya but I am just a little nervous."  
  
"That's normal." She gave Wufei a smile and they headed down to the hanger.  
  
"Do you think we'll find her soon?"  
  
"I don't know but it would be a nice birthday present though."  
  
"Yes, it would, let's just concentrate on finding her right now though, and as long as he gets out of that room and I don't have to worry any more the better." They were now approaching the earth and nothing looked so much like home to Nicole. But she did miss Wufei and still would though out the time she was away. The smell of him didn't make it any better either. The months that she had spent with he Uncle Quatre had been an emotional roller coaster, feelings for Wufei and caring for her Uncle she was so confused.  
  
"Where do we look first?"  
  
"Well if I remember right we were in a compound in Australia when I first met her and they said that it didn't take them long to get to the compound so that's were we could start."  
  
"That's where we'll start then." The earth grew bigger as they closed in on it.  
  
Chapter 5  
  
They spent four long months down on earth ans didn't even cover half of the continet. Camping out was not Nicole's idea of fun.  
  
"How much longer do we have to stay here?"  
  
"Till we have search everywhere."  
  
"But how do we know when we've found her?"  
  
"I leave while your asleep and go out by night I am almost done with the continet."  
  
"Really how come I never hear you leave?"  
  
"Cuz I use stealth, I don't want to wake you."  
  
"Oh you're so thoughtful."  
  
"No I just also don't want to be caught by the compound that is so close by." Just then a faint beeping came from inside Death Scythe's cockpit.  
  
"Now what is that?"  
  
Duo found out what the problem was and called down to Nicole.  
  
"We've found her. She should be right above us soon but you'll have to hurry." She had already been inside of Nataku before he had finished. They took off and tried to catch up going as fast as they could.  
  
"Can't we go any faster?"  
  
"She's got incredible speed se has a newer model than we do. I'll try to contact her.  
  
Chapter 6  
  
She had spent the last 10 months traveling by her. She was so alone and missed her friends dearly. She had kept pictures of them in her cockpit. They kept her memories new. A screen popped up on her right as she gazed at the pictures. The picture and the voice weren't as good as she would have liked it to be but it was better than nothing.  
  
"Akina stop it's me!" A voice on the screen yelled at her. She couldn't tell who it was at first but as she slowed down she found out who it was. She now remembered the voice as Duo's. She turned her gundam around to see two coming at her at full speed. They were about 20,000 ft away. Duo and Wufei how did they find me? Another screen popped up from the second gundam that had been tracking her, but it wasn't the guy that she had expected.  
  
"Nicole What are you doing with Nataku?"  
  
"Looking for you."  
  
"I told Quatre not to."  
  
"We know but you never told us not to."  
  
"Anyways how are you?"  
  
"We're all doing fine it's Uncle Quatre that you have to worry about."  
  
Akina looked to her left where she kept a single picture of him and her. She gave a sigh.  
  
"How long has it been for him?"  
  
"Too long, for the past six months he stayed in his room not talking to any of us. We had tried to talk with him for some time but no reaction was coming from him. All he does is stare out the window and ignore us."  
  
She knew what he must have been feeling like because she too had felt dreadful over the past months herself.  
  
"I do need to come home but not today. We'll leave in the morning."  
  
Chapter 7  
  
They spent that day finding a place to stay that night and somewhere to keep their gundams. They found a nice inn next to a tall pine forest. The place seemed very familiar to Duo and Akina but they couldn't figure out why.  
  
"I know where we are now!" Duo said as the two girls looked up from their dinner.  
  
"What are you talking about? Have you gone crazy again?"  
  
"Akina don't you remember? Sure the furtuniture is moved a bit but this is the same inn we first stayed in. Remember now?"  
  
She looked around and soon the memory of her and Quatre came into her mind. Tears welded up in her eyes as the thought of that morning that they had their first kiss together.  
  
Chapter 8  
  
"I've been gone for too long haven't I?"  
  
"Well to us it just feels as though you went on a small vacation, but to Quatre he must think it has been an eternity."  
  
"I see. How do you think you'll bring me to see him?"  
  
"Very slowly, he may not believe us when we tell him." They walked towards where their gundams were kept safe from sight.  
  
"Well this is it, I am finally going home."  
  
"Yep, just hope nothing exciting has happened while we were gone."  
  
"I doubt that anything major has happened. We've only been gone for a few months."  
  
They had joked and talked the whole way back to the colony. When they were inside the hanger Nicole sensed that something had gone wrong and went to go find the other. They were all in the study looking worried.  
  
"What happened? I know that it is bad I have a feeling it is." Nicole said as she stood in the doorway with Akina and Duo behind her.  
  
"What's wrong you look like something di- he didn't did he?" Duo asked with a very serious look on his face.  
  
"No, he didn't, but you need to be worried." Trowa said as he led them upstairs.  
  
"Trowa what happened to him?" Duo asked as they stopped in front of Quatre's room.  
  
"You have to see for your selves." Trowa opened the door to revile Quatre lying on his bed not moving. Akina ran to his side and started to sob into his sheets. "I should have never left! Look what I have done to you!" The three left the room to leave her there the rest of the day and night.  
  
Chapter 8  
  
It was another six months since Akina had come home. Quatre had still been in his come, they had found out that he had tried to commit suside and failed by landing on the unsuspecting Heero, who had a broken arm from the fall. Akina stayed at his bedside for those long months hoping to get him to wake up.  
  
One day while staying with him and reading a book out loud, she hoped that he could hear her. His eyes opened slowly. She didn't notice for about a good half hour when she finally looked at him and noticed that he was awake.  
  
"Quatre I'm back and I will never leave you again."  
  
A weak smile crept across his face and he tried to sit up but he still didn't have all his strength back.  
  
"Don't do that, you'll hurt your self. You rest now."  
  
She had stroked his hair and he had fallen asleep. That day would be his 18th birthday and he just received the greatest present that anyone could give. He had got her back and that's all that he wanted.  
  
The End. 


End file.
